Village Seeks More Water

August 24, 2011

NEW BREMEN — Area councilors voted to move forward with a project after passing an emergency vote Tuesday evening.

New Bremen Village Councilors passed an emergency resolution to hire R.L. Quinter Well Drilling of Burkettsville to proceed with the enlarging of a water well on Isern Farm, at a cost not to exceed $40,000.

Village Administrator Wayne York presented councilors with two options — hire Quinter, who originally did the test well, to enlarge the well or take bids. He noted, if councilors proceeded to hire Quinter, they could start within two to three weeks. If they chose to take bids for the project, they would have to wait two to four weeks before they even awarded a contract.

“We could get this into production status by next summer,” York said.

If the pumping is not successful at this well, he noted they would have to keep trying.

“If it’s not a successful well location, we’ll have to move on to somewhere else and start testing,” York said.

His issue with waiting, he noted, was the water shortage the village encountered this summer — something a new well would prevent — which Councilor Dennis Burnell echoed concerns about as well.

“I think in the situation here with the water advisory we had, in my opinion, we’re justified in moving ahead because if we have to go through this again,” Burnell said.

York also noted the project had originally been shopped around before the village went with Quinter.

Overall, Mayor Jeff Pape noted Bremenfest was successful, and members of the parks committee will be meeting with representatives from the village’s parks department to discuss particulars with set up, cleanup and restrooms during festivals.

Pape also noted Pumpkinfest will take place Sept. 23 and 24.

“There’s a full slate of things,” Pape said.

Councilor Delores Stienecker noted she attended the previous coffee with administration hour, and one of the things taken from the outing was a suggestion to the village to offer a contact list of names of people in town who can do “handy-man” sort of activities, such as for the resident who needed concrete poured and did not know how to do it.

“Maybe we should see if we have anyone retired who can do that to help ladies living alone or older people,” she said.

Anyone interested in being on such a contact list can contact York at the village offices.

In other business, councilors:

• Heard from AMP Director of Marketing Eric Lloyd with an AMP overview.

• Passed, as an emergency, a resolution accepting the amounts and rates as determined by the budget commission and authorizing the necessary tax levies and certifying them to the county auditor. Fiscal Officer Diane Gast noted there was no change in the rates.

The next meeting of the New Bremen Village Council will be at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 13 at the village offices.